For the first time in many years, Te Mire Ura Dance Competition for the Junior and Intermediate sections have been cancelled due to lack of entries in the categories.

Ministry of Culture’s national events manager Robert Ioaba said: “We did not receive the minimum number of entrants for the Junior and Intermediate dance competitions, only very few entered.”

This year’s Te Mire Ura competition has been split across three months to allow dancers time to prepare themselves for the upcoming shows.

However, a lack of interest forced Ministry of Cultural Development to cancel the much-anticipated Juniors and Intermediate sections that was scheduled for

With a high number of school students contracting the Covid-19 Omicron variant and having to undergo isolation, Ioaba said “parents were and are still worried and not keen to allow their kids to perform”.

“There are circumstances out of our control,” he said. “Which is why we didn’t have much interest, although we did try to encourage parents to register their kids in Te Mire Ura.”

Ioaba also extended his apologies to the few parents who had registered their children for Te Mire Ura and were not notified of the cancellation before the public notices were released yesterday.

Te Mire Ura Experts (ages 35 - 59) will go ahead on May 5, and the Masters (ages 47 - 57) is scheduled for May 13.